Thursday, November 5, 2009

Women Are Attacking Campus

Last week students Michelle Tomarat and Derek Warwick posted satirical posters expressing their disgust and incredulity over President Indira Samarasekera's comments that males are disenfranchised in terms of enrollment in academia. She was referring to the fact that women now comprise 56% of campus population with men trailing behind at a paltry 44%. Her concern is that in 20 years that Canada will "not have the benefit of enough male talent at the heads of companies and elsewhere." Naturally comments like these provoked outrage and forced students to wonder if Samarasekera has a clue about women's position as it stands today in the world. The fact is that as of 2007, women in North America still make 76 cents to every male dollar. They do not comprise the majority, or even a close minority (certainly no 44%) of executive positions in business, politics, or government. There has not been an elected female prime-minister in our country yet. There has not been an elected female leader in North America, for that matter. Some articles I have read from the European Foreign press indicate that North America is a bit of a laughing stock in terms of their lack of female leadership...something that is increasingly more common in Europe. Yet still over here in the land of prehistoric snow and ice, we continue to lag behind.
I would have to say that what outraged me the most was that there was a time (a loooong time) where women did not have equal numbers in terms of enrollment in Canadian universities. This, however, was not a matter of concern for past presidents of the U of A or elsewhere. There were no drives to help women achieve higher education. No quotas were lowered (as is being discussed in the States to help drive male enrollment in post secondary education), no tax breaks given, no encouragement formal or informal delivered. Yet the number of women being educated slowly started to rise. So many of them, myself included, made it through the school of hard knocks. During my first degree, I had two children and a part time job. I would start school at 8 am, go to classes until noon, and then drive to GE where I would work until 6. I worked all day Saturday and Sunday. For two years I never took a day off. I did this because I knew there was no oil patch job waiting for me. I knew that as a single mother, I made up the largest portion of those who reside below the poverty line and that I had the least likely chance of ever crossing that line. If there was any hope for me, it was to be an exception to every statistic that was defining me - so this is what I set out to do, and have done with a moderate degree of success.
At any rate, back to the subject at hand. The satirical posters hailed headlines that read "Women are attacking campus!" and "Women: stop! drop! Men: Enroll!" complete with black and white vintage representations of the 1950's men and women. The posters were clever and above all funny. These students used satire to question statements that, frankly, should be questioned. The response to this was that campus security rounded up these students and told them they were being charged and potentially expelled from the University for distributing "hate literature." In 2009 ladies. This should concern you.
Basically the students were bullied into dropping their resistance, and President Samarasekera stated to the Edmonton Journal that there is no way they will be expelled as she is all for 'academic freedom.' Apparently Samarasekera's office received many complaints from faculty members, professors, and students protesting this suppression of academic freedom. This was not an issue that was being taken lightly. Faculty members and professors at the U of A, and presumably around the world, take academic freedom seriously. Like lay-down-in-front-of-a-tank-Tiananmen Square- seriously, which is lucky.
I couldn't help but think back to my first degree and to a group of students who weren't so lucky. During Rod Fraser's imperial reign as President of the U of A, a group of students spray painted some plywood sheets that were erected as a temporary front to a business in Hub mall that was under construction. The posted statistics of the ever-increasing tuition prices at the university under his leadership and correlated them with the number of students who were homeless, to those who were now forced to use the food bank. They were expelled for destruction of private property and in that battle, the students fought alone. My husband still says that Fraser's name on his degree is a blight to the quaecumque vera (whatsoever things are true) motto underneath it. Fittingly, that motto comes from St. Paul's letter to the Phillippians (who wasn't the greatest lover of women) and the passage commences with "Brothers..."
While the students ultimately were not charged, and to be fair Samarasekera defended their right to freedom of academic expression and that the literature they distributed did not constitute 'hate literature,' it is still with a heavy heart that I write this morning. I am overwhelmed with stories lately of women who are getting the shaft in corporate America, who are climbing up on the backs of one another, spreading malicious rumours to gain advantage, and bumping their heads on the glass ceiling. To those women who are taking other women out in order to gain advantage (and I have a specific example in mind here) I say this: you don't know what you are doing. The stakes have never been higher - and you reinforce a system that will spare you no mercy when your time comes.
To Derek Warwick and Michelle Tomarat I say this: where can I get some of those posters? I would like to frame them and put them up in my office - to remind me.